The camp hosts were also ordered out and they will be gone early next week, Goodboe says. Those who paid for closed dates will get refunds, she says.

"They're going to close the gates so nobody else comes in," she says. "We all know why."

The closure comes four days before the start of the Cascade general bull-elk rifle season, which brings hundreds of hunters to the Union Creek area.

Rogue Recreation had planned to keep those three campgrounds open through October. They stayed open during the shutdown because they were run by a private contractor and not by federal employees, Goodboe says.

It is not yet known what prompted today's closure by the U.S. Forest Service.